One weekend I decided I wanted pancakes for breakfast just like the ones I had at Denny’s when we were in Las Vegas. They were sweet, light and fluffy, and after trying out various recipes and tweaking, I think these ones come pretty close to the Denny’s ones.

Fluffy American-Style Pancakes

Makes 4 pancakes

Ingredients

130g plain flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

2 tablespoons of sugar

1 large egg

130ml milk

1 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Butter or Fry Light spray (for the pan)

Method

Mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar) together in a bowl.

Make a well in the centre of the dry mixture and add the wet ingredients (egg, milk, vanilla).

Gently combine everything together with a whisk to make a smooth batter.

Heat a large frying pan over a low-medium heat and melt butter or spray with fry light.

Ladle or scoop pancake batter into the pan.

Leave the batter to cook until bubbles form on the surface of the pancake.

Flip the pancake over and allow to cook until it rises to about 1cm thick.

Best served warm with maple syrup!

Tips

I’ve found some awesome recipes written by American folk, who tend to use cups. In the UK we don’t tend to use cups, but we do use spoons and I’d 100% recommend getting a set of proper measuring spoons and cups to make life so much easier. You can buy a set of cups and spoons here.

Don’t tap the pancakes during cooking and they’ll remain soft and fluffy.

Use self-raising flour for extra fluffy pancakes, but still add the baking powder.

Avoid over mixing the batter – mix the wet ingredients together in a separate bowl before adding to the dry ingredients.

If you want chocolate chip pancakes, sprinkle them onto the batter after you’ve poured it into the pan… This way they remain spread evenly throughout the pancake rather than sinking to the bottom.